Adam Sessler meets with G4tv.com News Editor Patrick Klepek to go delve further past the Left 4 Dead 2 review to elaborate on the new A.I. director, melee weapons and overall reason as to why this sequel was well deserved.

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I'll start off by saying I was one of the those valve loyalists who was a little put off by the announcement of L4D2 at E3 this year; not just because I've been waiting for episode 3 to make its debut, but also because they announced it would be released as a full priced game. After much peer pressure I finally caved and purchased the game off Amazon for $29.99 (something I would have happily done off steam if it were offered at that price). I'll say this about the game and the controversy.

If valve had just released this game at this price tag from the get go, I don't think there would have been any controversy at all. Call it what you will, a full sequel, an expansion, an upgrade, whatever, this game still is fundamentally left 4 dead, and buying the same game twice in one year is a little hard for some gamers to stomach, especially when their wallet is running on empty.

The 5 new campaigns, 2 new game modes, and 3 new special infected are indeed very welcome changes to the franchise. The melee weapons I'm less enthused with than the reviewers at x-play appear to be. I still find them to be a bit gimmicky and a tad out of place with the melee shove still in place as secondary fire. I also feel they intentionally made the new pistols (excluding the magnum) less effective to encourage the use of melee weapons which are much more effective against incoming hordes. I'll grant using a katana or chainsaw to dice up waves of incoming zombies can be a satisfying experience, and a useful backup when you run out of ammo. However, I think in general its a better idea to attempt to keep your distance with a firearm than to allow yourself to be constantly swarmed, especially when you're playing the game on expert mode where if you get hit 3 times by a regular zombie you go down. In fact I'd go as far as to say most melee weapons are useless in expert mode.

I've also had a few unpleasant experiences with people online refusing to stop using a melee weapon throughout the entire game. This gets especially obnoxious when you're being pulled away by a smoker or a jockey, and your katana wielding teammate refuses to switch to a firearm while you're life is slowly drained away. Or even worse, when they insist on running up to every boomer and spitter they see and bathing in their goo.

As a bottom line, in my opinion L4D2 like a solid expansion but not a full new game warranting a 50-60$ price tag. Yes there is a lot of new content here, but is it really a new game? Regardless, it's still a lot of fun, and you probably won't be sorry you made the transition even if you were "forced" into it. However, you might find yourself with some buyers remorse if you pay full price. 30-40$ for an expansion pack is acceptable, 50-60$ feels overpriced. I know the G4 staff probably doesn't have to be as careful with their money as some of the target audience for gamers (students) and I think sometimes they forget that in their reviews. I really wish valve had slapped on a discount for people who had purchased the original l4d, its not an unheard of thing to do. I mean, look at CD Projekt Red with Witcher Enhanced edition. Would a 30% discount really have been so much to ask for a little brand loyalty? Maybe I'm just bitter on the subject, but I recommend purchasing L4D2 when you can get a good price for it. Luckily, since its the holidays, you can probably find a good deal on it and pick it up for around 30$.

While I understand your defense of this title being a true sequel, I still disagree. I believe that this is a true console sequel. I used to play Steam a lot, CS DOD TF. Now TF2 DOD:S and CS:S. The amount of changes these games had for free was pretty big for free. To name one that really stands out is the current change to TF2 (not so current anymore lol). They completely overhauled this game in Steam adding achievements, class changes, equipment based on a type of leveling, new maps, and some other things I may not be aware of. Steam gamers are used to having large changes to games to keep them fresh. When you buy a Valve game on Steam, you are buying that game for years and years of gameplay because of the community made maps that are free, the developer made maps for free, the game updates for free... You get the point. The thing about L4D is that, I believe, thrived better on XBL than it did on Steam. With the way consoles are, these changes are defiantly enough to warrant a sequel. But again Steam gamers are so used to Valve's commitment to upgrading its own titles for free that this seems a bit... well... unfounded, to say the least. Again I have not played the game so I can't honestly tell you that it is THAT much of a big upgrade. I just don't know that. But what I do know is what I have heard and read, and I still think it is not quite the large amazing changes that we Steam and Valve players are used to from our sequels.